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Iran Strongly Condemns Ankara Terror Attack

Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that the attack on Wednesday was carried out by a Syrian with links to the YPG, the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, who was supported by the Turkish Kurd PKK movement.

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A vehicle laden with explosives reportedly targeted a convoy of buses carrying military personnel that were stopped at traffic lights, the army said.

A blast in Ankara a year ago killed more than 100 people.

But it said that Necar was himself a member of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), which Turkey accuses of being a terror group that is the Syrian branch of the PKK, a link disputed by Washington.

Turkey is hosting 2.5 million refugees from Syrias civil war and hundreds of thousands from Iraq, and is increasingly bitter that it has been left to shoulder the burden.

“Kurdish rebels, the Islamic State group and a leftist extremist group have carried out attacks in the country recently”, The Associated Press reports.

On Thursday, pro-government Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported that a Syrian national, who was identified from his fingerprints, was the alleged Ankara bomber, according to Reuters.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he hopes the perpetrators of the attack “will be swiftly brought to justice”.

The Turkish military began shelling YPG positions around Azaz after the militia came closer to capture the town before regime forces, threatening to cut the last supply line of moderate rebels, backed by both Turkey and the West. There were no other claims of responsibility.

Kurdish gains stoke Turkey’s fear about a possible Kurdish statelet along its border with Syria.

The PKK, which has been fighting for Kurdish self-determination since 1984, is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey and its Western allies.

The attack was the latest in a series of bombings in the past year mostly blamed on fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“Turkey has seen several bombings in the past several months, the most recent targeting the heart of Istanbul’s tourist area last month”.

In an apparent show of solidarity, pictures show Demirtas sitting next to Saleh Muslim, head of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, whose fighters were hit by Turkish forces over the weekend.

Shortly after the bombing, Turkish warplanes bombed northern Iraq overnight, killing 60-70 militants, including senior PKK figures, he added. The claim could not be verified.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also “strongly condemns the Turkish crimes against the Syrian people and the territorial integrity of the country, gross violations of the sovereignty of the country and the principles of the UN Charter, worldwide law and all UN Security Council anti-terrorism resolutions”.

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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said there is evidence to prove that militants linked to Syria-based Kurdish YPG group were behind Wednesday’s deadly bombing in Ankara. “Turkey will not hesitate to use its right to self-defense anytime, anywhere, and in all situations”.

Turkey military F-16C